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8. Ruskin’s Gardener-Angel, David Downs
David Downs (1818-1888) was Ruskin’s gardener and his go-to man whenever one of his many projects needed a boost. Ruskin scholars generally suggest that Downs was a rather put-upon loyal family servant whose nous brought order to Ruskin’s chaotic schemes. But Downs's...
7. Jen Shepherd
For more than 20 years, Jen Shepherd was a key member of the team at the Ruskin Library and Research Centre at Lancaster University. Her recent death represents a sad loss to all who knew her. THE FAITHFUL SHEPHERDESS Whenever I arrived at the Ruskin Library, Jen was...
6. Ruskin’s Coachman
As many of us prepare for Christmas in some of the strangest circumstances we can remember, let’s look to Ruskin’s wider circle for cheering memories Christmas Day 1928, the Sheffield Daily Telegraph reported, would mark the 50th wedding anniversaries of “Mr and Mrs...
5. The Ruskinian Solicitor
I promised in my last blog, which was about the Ruskin Exhibition held in Manchester in 1904, to remedy the absence in biographical dictionaries of an entry for J. Ernest Phythian. Phythian was one of Manchester’s foremost Ruskinians and deserves to be remembered for...
4. The Ruskin Exhibition, Manchester (1904)
In the spring of 1904, a major Ruskin Exhibition was mounted at the Manchester City Art Gallery. It presented drawings and paintings by Ruskin, Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites, pictures of architecture and copies by Ruskin’s pupils, as well as portraits and...
3. Remembering the family of George Baker of Birmingham & Bewdley
On All Hallows' Day we remember the family of George Baker (1825-1910), the blacking manufacturer, Quaker, philanthropist, Mayor of Birmingham and Bewdley, friend of John Ruskin, and second Master of the Guild of St George. (This blog entry is intended as a...
2. A Swan without a Leda
My forthcoming study of John Ruskin’s Sheffield will present the most complete biography yet published of Henry Swan (1825-1889) , the curator of St George’s Museum, Walkley. This blog post answers an important question: did Henry Swan help in the 1850s to decorate...
1. A New Ruskin Blog
I intend to use this space to explore a range of topics related to the Victorian critic of art and society, John Ruskin (1819-1900). It will include original articles, reviews and commentary, some of it revisiting old work, some of it anticipating publications to...